Search the Dictionary

A flattened stem or branch which more or less resembles a leaf, and performs the function of a leaf as regards respiration and assimilation.

The germ history of the functions, or the history of the development of vital activities, in the individual, being one of the branches of ontogeny. See Morphogeny. Haeckel.

Of or pertaining to physiology; relating to the science of the functions of living organism; as, physiological botany or chemistry.

One who is versed in the science of physiology; a student of the properties and functions of animal and vegetable organs and tissues.

A treatise on physiology. Mental physiology, the science of the functions and phenomena of the mind, as distinguished from a philosophical explanation of the same.

The tribal history of the functions, or the history of the paleontological development of vital activities, -- being a branch of phylogeny. See Morphophyly. Haeckel.

dy; as, the pituitary fossa. Pituitary body or gland (Anat.), a glandlike body of unknown function, situated in the pituitary fossa, and connected with the infundibulum of the brain; the hypophysis. -- Pituitary fossa (Anat.), the ephippium.

A piece of DNA, usually circular, functioning as part of the genetic material of a cell, not integrated with the chromosome and replicating independently of the chromosome, but transferred, like the chromosome, to subsequent generations. In bacteria, plasmids often carry the genes for antibiotic resistance; they are ex…

n from the ovum to make room for the chromatin of the fertilizing spermatozoön; but their functions are not fully understood. -- Polar circles (Astron. & Geog.), two circles, each at a distance from a pole of the earth equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, or about 23º 28', the northern called the arctic circle, and…

The assumption of several structural forms without a corresponding difference in function; -- said of sponges, etc.

Hence: The office and functions of a minister of state or member of the cabinet; as, to receive the portfolio of war; to resign the portfolio.

In the theory of gravitation, or of other forces acting in space, a function of the rectangular coordinates which determine the position of a point, such that its differential coefficients with respect to the coördinates are equal to the components of the force at the point considered; -- also called potential function…

Actual performance; application of knowledge; -- opposed to theory. There are two functions of the soul, -- contemplation and practice. South. There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice; each, to a certain extent, supposes the other; theory is dependent on practice; practice must have preced…

To uphold or encourage prelacy; to exercise prelatical functions. An episcopacy that began then to prelatize. Milton.

The function or condition of one who presides; superintendence; control and care.

The office or character of a priest; the priestly function. Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Of or pertaining to the mind, or its functions and diseases; mental; -- contrasted with physical. Psychical blindness, Psychical deafness (Med.), forms of nervous disease in which, while the senses of sight and hearing remain unimpaired, the mind fails to appreciate the significance of the sounds heard or the images se…

of the human soul; specifically, the systematic or scientific knowledge of the powers and functions of the human soul, so far as they are known by consciousness; a treatise on the human soul. Psychology, the science conversant about the phenomena of the mind, or conscious subject, or self. Sir W. Hamilton.…

sychical and physical in their conjoint operation in man; the doctrine of the relation of function or dependence between body and soul.

A disease of the mind; especially, a functional mental disorder, that is, one unattended with evident organic changes.